I do too. It is odd though that he left for good and didnt take a leave or stay on to consult. Must be more to it. Maybe he just didnt want to make games anymore and his settlement made sure he didnt have to. They wete a great team but i have confidence in the new ip.

No one knows exactly how much they settled for, but it was a lot of money. The lawsuit started at around $40m, but quickly escalated into hundreds of millions. Activision reportedly put aside $1b to pay them if Activision lost. Shortly after, they announced a settlement, and both West and Zampella walked into the court room with big smiles on their faces. So I really doubt it was only $40m.

Interesting, a google search confirmed what you just said, but I never saw it on N4G. You'd think this would be big news, but obviously it's more important to report on Wii U doom articles on the main page.

The games concept and everything was created by West and Zampella. So even if West left last May, he still had lots of input during the early stages of development, so his departure shouldn't affect the game too much. These are the 2 guys who created Medal of Honor AND Call of Duty. Those 2 franchises had huge impact on both the game industry and the FPS genre. I'm hoping this new game will be of similar scale and quality.

I'm guessing the thing in the middle is some type of warehouse or something? But it looks like it has some big ball/dome on top. Looks like there's a stream/river or something on the left, and I'm guessing the purplish things in the bottom right are railings.

His timing is questionable, since he just cashed in on his settlement with Activision. If it truly is family issues, I hope he works it out and makes a come back, but I wonder if it's more of a "I'm rich now and I don't need to do this sh*t anymore" or a "We're in over our heads" kind of vacation.

Yeah, I get the feeling that there is more to this than just family issues. If it was just that then why would he leave FOR GOOD? It would suck if he kind of just sold out after the settlement income, but it may be a possibility.

Sucks either way. He really seemed like a great guy and definitely a talented dev.

Damn this sucks. I watched an hour long interview with him and Vince Zampella a couple years ago. Between the 2 of them he really seemed to be the brains of the operation and was way more in touch with his games than Zampella. He actually seemed more like a passionate developer than an owner or creator. Nothing against Zampella though.